Relaxation time constants of electron polarization, 〈Sz〉, for optically pumped rubidium atoms in a drifilm coated glass cell have been investigated with the Faraday rotation method. The dependence of the 〈Sz〉 relaxation time on pump cell temperature, rubidium density and applied magnetic field has been determined with high precision. The measurements allow the determination of the local magnetic field on the surface, alkali-wall binding energy and wall-dwell time. Furthermore, the change of relaxation time caused by admixtures of molecular hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen has been investigated. No influence due to the addition of hydrogen could be detected up to a density of 3.3×1014 cm−3 at typical rubidium densities of several 1011 cm−3. The cross section for depolarizing collisons with molecular oxygen has been determined to be 7.50×10−15 cm2. The corresponding cross section for nitrogen was found to be two orders of magnitude lower. The experimental results are discussed in respect to the performance of spin exchange sources for nuclear polarized hydrogen and deuterium.
The interaction of spin polarized cesium atoms on coated surfaces is examined. Coated surfaces find extensive applications in atomic devices-hydrogen masers and advanced rubidium frequency standards utilize wall coatings to obtain very narrow hyperfine resonances. A Cs atomic beam is hyperfine or spin polarized by optical pumping techniques using a single mode AlGaAs diode laser. The ground state distribution is probed before and after scattering from coated surfaces using laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy. The coatings under investigations are paraffin and organosilanes and these are known to be very weakly relaxing surfaces for polarized alkali atoms. The spin relaxation properties of paraffin and organosilane coatings have been studied in glass cell-vapor environment. In our experiments using polarized atomic beams, our goal is to examine in detail the hyperfine and spin relaxation properties of these coatings in a carefully controlled environment which is not possible in the gas cell environment. We measure the spin relaxation probability per wall collision as a function of temperature of the surface. Results of our studies will be presented.
A new optical method for studying the spin relaxation of optically aligned rubidium vapor is described. In this method, the pumping radiation, consisting of circularly polarized
D1 resonance radiation, is suddenly shut off and then turned on again after a known time interval. The relaxation which takes place during the interval of darkness causes the vapor to become more opaque to the pumping radiation at a rate which is determined by the relaxation time. A large degree of alignment, as well as a relaxation time of about 80 milliseconds, were observed in a closed-off evacuated cylindrical glass cell completely lined, except for
2001 of the wall area, with a thin film of tetracontane (
C40H82). The variation of relaxation time with buffer gas pressure was studied in this cell and in an unlined glass cell. From the observations with the unlined cell, diffusion coefficients for rubidium in neon and argon of 0.31
cm2/sec and 0.24
cm2/sec, respectively, can be deduced. Observed cross sections for disorientation collisions between aligned ground-state rubidium atoms and neon, argon, krypton, and xenon atoms are 5.2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\ensuremath{-}23}$
cm2, 3.7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\ensuremath{-}22}$
cm2, 5.9\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\ensuremath{-}21}$
cm2, and 1.3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\ensuremath{-}20}$
cm2, respectively. In the evacuated tetracontane-lined cell, the relaxation time decreased by 30% for a tenfold increase in rubidium vapor pressure. An explanation for this relatively weak dependence is suggested. The longest observed relaxation time was approximately 0.4 seconds in a tetracontanelined cell filled with neon to a pressure of 3 cm Hg.
A cryogenic technique has been used to produce polarized
3He targets of up to relative density p=12 atm (\ensuremath{\approxeq}3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}
1020 3He atoms/
cm3; p=1 atm corresponds to 760 Torr or 101.3 kPa pressure at 273 K). In these targets
3He nuclei are polarized by spin-exchange collisions with optically pumped rubidium atoms. From transmission measurements at wavelengths of 790--800 nm, we have determined pressure shifts, linewidths, and line-shape asymmetries for the Rb 5
S1/2\ensuremath{\rightarrow}5
P1/2 D1 transition. The Rb spin-destruction rate was found to exhibit a quadratic increase versus
3He pressure, which indicates the importance of Rb${\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}^{3}$He${\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}^{3}$He collision processes. The transmission results for circularly polarized light are well described by a model that predicts the dependence of the average Rb polarization on Rb density,
3He pressure, light intensity, and cell geometry. The Rb${\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}^{3}$He spin-exchange cross section, 〈${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\sigma}}}_{\mathrm{SE}}$v〉=6.1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}20}$
cm3 ${\mathrm{s}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$, was found to be independent of
3He pressure up to p=12.1 atm. Maximum
3He polarizations of 72--79% were observed with cells of 17
cm3 volume that contained
3He at p=6--9 atm.
We investigated the operation of an all-optical rubidium-87 atomic magnetometer with amplitude-modulated light. To study the suppression of spin-exchange relaxation, three schemes of pumping were implemented with room-temperature and heated paraffin coated vacuum cells. Efficient pumping and accumulation of atoms in the F=2 ground state were obtained. However, the sought-for narrowing of the resonance lines has not been achieved. A theoretical analysis of the polarization degree is presented to illustrate the absence of light narrowing due to radiation trapping at high temperature.